New Testament

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The oldest MSS. extant are:—(1) The Codex Sinaitʹicus
(א), published at the expense of Alexander II. of Russia since the Crimean war. This codex contains nearly the whole of the Old and New Testaments, and was discovered in the convent of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, by Constantius Tischendorf. It is ascribed to the fourth century. (2) The Codex Vaticaʹnus (B), in the Vatican Library. Written on vellum in Egypt about the fourth century. (3) The Codex Alexandriʹnus (A), belonging to the fifth century. It was presented to Charles I. in 1628 by Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Alexandria, and is preserved in the British Museum. It consists of four folio volumes on parchment, and contains the Old and New Testaments (except the first twenty-four chapters of St. Matthew) and the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians.